There’s a trend arising. Instead of being asked to come and do my ‘thing’ about positive psychology, I’m being asked to do the exact opposite.
I’ve attended half a dozen senior leadership meetings where I’ve been asked to talk about heavy stuff; moral injury, psychological safety and the new threat in town – a variation on PTSD, Corporate Traumatic Stress Disorder.
The truth, almost universally (but particularly noticeable in healthcare and education), is that staff are running on empty. Adrenaline and bloody mindedness got them through the pandemic but now what? How do we keep going when there’s nothing left in the tank?
Looking at the original definition of ‘burnout’, there are three elements:
- Emotional exhaustion. Fatigue that comes from caring too much for too long (teachers and health care professionals will recognise this)
- Depletion of empathy, caring and compassion. You used to care, but you’ve seen so much bad stuff that you’ve become de-sensitised
- Decreased sense of accomplishment. The feeling that you’re getting nowhere. No matter how hard you work, there’s always a backlog. Most people will be able to identify with that!
Seeing as I’m being called in to advise these senior teams, I may as well share my solution.
The common request from our clients is to deliver a series of workshops on resilience. At Art of Brilliance can do that, and we’re good at that, but that’s not the solution. The signal from resilience workshops is that your employer is going to help you develop some mental toughness so you can endure the battering that’s coming your way. Resilience workshops allow traumatised staff to stagger on. If you’ve seen zombie movies – I’m describing the corporate equivalent of that!
Nobody wants to work in a Zombie organisation.
The real solution is to create a workplace that’s buzzing with vitality, creativity and optimism. People wake up when they feel positivity, purpose and pride. A single individual operating in ‘best self’ mode is proof that it can be done. An entire team of buzzing employees is something to behold. In positive psychology we call it ‘collective effervescence’ – there’s an energy and a can-do mentality.
That’s the solution to eliminating moral injury and steering clear of Corporate Traumatic Stress Disorder. It’s the leadership ‘get out of jail free’ card.
So how on earth do we create that workplace culture?
Large organisations these days may well be spending £’000s per year per employee on ‘well-being’ and I for one won’t argue against that in itself. But senior leaders need to ask how much they are investing per annum per employee on the most vital aspect of well-being: having a decent human being as a manager.
Plot spoiler: The biggest single factor in whether your team is fizzing with vitality, purpose and creativity is their line manager. If employee wellbeing is your top priority, leadership development needs to be your top priority.
And I don’t mean olde worlde leadership development. Beware those programmes! The pandemic has changed everything. The old rules of leadership no longer apply.
A culture of psychological safety embraces humanity in all its richness of human genius and human flaws. Build your leadership programme around Positive Psychology. In case you don’t know, it’s the science of wellness. The study of human flourishing. Instead of aiming for perfection, build your programme around the concept that we’re all beautiful, flawed geniuses. That means leaders have to create and then nurture a working environment that allows people to be human. We have to talk about emotions. We have to ask people about their feelings. We have to notice when they themselves avoid the discomfort of doing so. Leaders have to demonstrate that they are trustworthy and that they care. I’m not talking lip service or platitudes.
Trust is essential. People know they are free to be messy and clumsy and unsure and hesitant and down and tired; free to make mistakes and generally not be perfect. And when a working culture embraces these aspects, not just allowing them but celebrating them, that’s when people start to unleash the good stuff. They reveal potential they didn’t know they had! Potential that’s always been there, but which has been withheld because we as leaders have not earned the right to expect body and soul.
It goes without saying that at Art of Brilliance, our leadership programmes will oil the wheels of culture change. We have something for everyone but I’d like to give a special shout out to our brand new programme, Leading with Compassion, which has been specifically designed for the NHS.
If you want immediate impact, you know where we are.